Finding Montana Sapphires in Gravel from the Spokane Bar Sapphire Mine

[@largent45]

Wow! You actually found quite a bit, for gravel that you didnt even know if it had already been searched! Ive seen a video of theo kellison and his wife alexis, search a bag of gravel they bought and one they collected themselves, but im not sure where they got it from, but the gravel was all much smaller and they found quite a few, but they were all smaller than yours! So you did good! I cant wait to see you polish one! Great video! Thanks for letting us tag along on your treasure hunt!

[@DonohueLabs]

Thanks for watching! I think overall these were bigger than the ones from Gem Mountain (a previous video) and there were more. I'd probably get another bag from Spokane Bar over Gem Mountain if I had to choose. But there are gravels from other mines to check out, too! Haven't looked too closely at how good the big ones might be for faceting, but more than one looks heavily fractured so we'll see.

[@kennethscott9431]

Have gotten a lot of gravel from Spokane bar. The biggest one found was 11.5 carats haven't cut it yet. Found another 7.5 carats after cutting it was 3.15 carats very pretty

[@DonohueLabs]

Nice big stones! How were the colors? Did you get them heat treated?

[@kennethscott9431]

@@DonohueLabs did not do any heat treatment to them. I have been told that it will only help with clarity will not make colors better. That is only from stones found there. The big one is a nice purple color the one that was cut was a beautiful blue. Have about 10 more uncut ranging from 4.5 to 9 carats nice blue and green stones

[@kennethscott9431]

Looking for someone to cut them. I have not learned to facet stones yet. I do like to cut opals I'm a true opalholic they are beautiful.

[@ResortDog]

@@kennethscott9431 pay for extra American precision cutting if you hope to sell them over third world jobbers

[@nancyhainline2517]

Additive, isn't it? My son & I collected 3 buckets plus 3 graded bags from Spokane Bar last fall. I have other projects that must be finished first, but am really having to be stern with myself to keep from doing some... argh. Glad all of you had fun with it.

[@nancyhainline2517]

I use a 9x9 pyrex baking dish and a flashlight to look for them. Have found that to work well to see all the translucent and translescent material.

[@douglasdobson8110]

I would not use a light table it'll make darker sapphires appear as regular pebbles, I lay a white beach towel outside on a table, wash the material in a gold pan (I always test for gold) and then spread it out on the towel, there's usually some sand so I gently spray the spread material which settles the sand to the bottom layer. I do it outside so I have lots of sunlight and the sapphires jump right out when they're wet and I've found one black sapphire so far very hard like all sapphires and solid black with the classic sapphire form. Your light table might cause you to miss the black ones especially if they're dry . . .

[@gregderksen1996]

Now i want to go through my bag i picked up at gem mountain! But i must resist the temptation, as i want to do that with my niece and nephew. Get anything worthwhile faceting?

[@DonohueLabs]

I already faceted one of the flat ones :) And although it's small, I'm looking forward to cutting that deep red stone.

[@CurrentlyRockhounding]

You did far better than I thought you were going to with that bag. I always worry that paydirts are going to be a rip off.

[@DonohueLabs]

For the price I paid, I definitely got my money's worth. Might have been disappointed if I'd paid retail, or if I couldn't facet them.

[@douglasdobson8110]

I did the Gem Mountain miners pail (they're currently out of stock) I got a lot of 1 carat sapphires and one two carat with nice blue unheated, and I just ordered some Spokane Bar so I'm very interested to see what you have. The description for Spokane Bar says the sapphires range from one to six carats, I would be just blown away if I find anything over three carats

[@douglasdobson8110]

So I was stressing about the money I spent on the Spokane Bar material, come home from errands and theres a $325.00 Indiana tax refund in the mailbox. The State of Indiana Department of Revenue had a budget surplus so they sent money back to Indiana taxpayers, Problem solved. I consider it God's way of telling me I'm better off wasting money on sapphire gravel than on crack . . . LOL Unfortunately I think sapphire gravel is more addictive . . . .

[@kristopherhughes5854]

Get the flat ones rose cut!! Don't throw away or give away they make great pendants or rings and earrings. And that red one is possibly a garnet? If not the rare montana ruby that is super valuable

[@DonohueLabs]

The bigger red one did turn out to be garnet (I faceted it). The smaller one might be sapphire, but it's so fractured and irregularly shaped it wouldn't cut well. But don't worry, I'm not throwing any away! I portrait cut one, but didn't think of a rose cut. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@JoseyWilds]

They already went thru the bags and salt em! Just like everyone else, it’s all a snake oil!!!

[@GothAtheist]

Ok, fr, why is every one of these videos claiming "at home" but actually using materials from a mine, and not from the back yard?

[@DonohueLabs]

Because they're doing the work at home. Obviously I'm not gonna find Montana sapphires in my backyard if I live in Washington or Iowa.